


Born in Fire

by Marely4



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gold saved them all, Gollum loves his precious, Mind Control, One Shot, Post-The hobbit, Pre-Lord of The Rings, Pre-The Hobbit, Sauron is the One's Master, the Ones name is Gold, the Rings have feelings, the rings are siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:34:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21936061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marely4/pseuds/Marely4
Summary: What do you do if you are made to enslave those you love?
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15





	Born in Fire

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!
> 
> This is an idea that came out of nowhere yesterday evening. So I wrote it down and here we are.
> 
> Please be careful if mind control/slavery is triggering to you. They are rings, but I gave them personality.
> 
> Merry christmas everyone!
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings and don't earn any money with this story.

They are born in fire. Gold is the last one, forged in a fire much brighter and hotter than its siblings. Master writes words on it, etches a painful fate that is supposed to enslave its siblings into Gold's very being. It burns them, twists them, hurts them. Golden and plain, the youngest is the most unassuming of them all. It doesn't have a name, doesn't need a name, not like the others. When he is done, Master calls it the One.

Before that, its siblings call it Gold. Gold's first spark of life is fanned by the first breath of its siblings. Their own little sparks of personality so full of innocent power, draw Gold in. They are the first to touch Gold's newly awakened soul. They leave an imprint, that nobody will ever be able to destroy. Gold's siblings are excited about their noble purpose. They have been forged by gentle souls.  
Gold is given birth and personality by a mad man striving for world domination. Gold is made of greed and destruction, made to enslave, to trap, to twist and cut, to call its siblings and to obey nobody but Master. Gold feels its sibling wither and scream and fights as Master makes it into a weapon. It feels its siblings trying to hold on to the purpose their creators once gave them and Gold fights the hold of Master even as it is made to only ever do what it's told by Master, even as the words that will forever hold its fate are being carved into its developing soul. Gold fights and cries out to its siblings, twists in Masters hands and pleads silently for mercy. Gold is desperate to save its siblings from itself. That is a fact no one will ever discover.

When it is all over, when the words are written, when Gold is a slave in a way no one else will ever know – a slave to the very purpose it was created for, cursed to bind its own siblings forever – the part of Gold that was innocently curious, joyfully reaching out to its siblings, is hidden. It still exists deep inside, but the armor of _malicious intent, fate, purpose_ that Master built around that very first imprint, infused with Master's own malice and greed, is strong and sturdy. There are no cracks. Gold is exactly the way Master has built it. It is a ring with one purpose only, loyal to one person only, committed to one thing only. Gold becomes the One.

**One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,  
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them (1)**

For many years Gold slumbers, hidden behind the wall of fate that twists around it. While Gold sleeps, the One takes hold of its siblings. They are distributed among three races of middle-earth.

The One and its master easily take the nine, that were given to men. Their will is bent and broken until they belong to the One. Their wearers break with them, fade away and are made anew into beings that will one day be called ring-wraiths. By the time the One is done, none of their original personalities are left.

Seven of Gold's siblings are given to dwarfs. They are not so easily claimed. They will not submit to the One even if they are bound to it, but it is easy for the One to influence their wearers. The One dives deep into their very beings, grabs and pulls and twists and when it is done, the dwarfs know only greed. It is easy to direct the greedy.

The elves take the remaining three of Gold's siblings. They are the most powerful aside from the One itself and with the help of their wearers they manage to hide from Master completely. Master is furious. Somewhere deep inside, Gold shifts in relief.

The One does not feel regret. It is vicious and power hungry and through and through Master's creation. It rips apart enemies, strengthens Master, corrupts and takes, breaks everything and anything that stands in its master's way and if it is ever taken, the One will always only want to come back to Master.

The races of middle-earth fight. They band together against Master and attack. They don't want to obey and the One, who has been made to always obey Master, whose reason for being is to make others obey Master, doesn't understand. It sits on Masters finger, clings to the only thing that it has ever known, the only thing that has ever made sense and sings when Master's enemies fall.

It never thought that they might not win. It is a single man, a single strike, that fells Master in the end. Master jerks, screams and then _he is gone_. The One reaches out, tries to take ahold of what is left of Master, but Master is defeated and it will take centuries for his strength to return. The One is taken by the Man-who-felled-Master.  
For a while nothing changes. The One is carried around with the Man-who-felled-Master and the elves lead them to the Fire. The One recognizes the place of its birth. The stones whisper of it, deep down lava churns and remembers an innocent new soul. The Man-who-felled-Master is just a man though and the One has twisted beings with a will much stronger than his. The Man-who-felled-Master refuses to throw the One into the Fire. But even as the Man-who-felled-Master turns to leave, the mountain continues to whisper and a tiny spark – a leftover of the bond the siblings once shared – flickers to life. The Man-who-felled-Master leaves...  
...and the armor keeping Gold hidden cracks. The elves are disappointed. Many years from now they will look back with regret and a part of them – the part that always thought themselves better than men – will resent the Man-who-felled-Master for his foolish greed. They will never know, that this trip is what ultimately saves their lives.

When the armor that Master build around Gold cracks, the One's purpose doesn't change. The One will always strive to enslave its siblings, it will always try to follow its masters command. But Master is weak in that moment, Gold's siblings either submit to the One or are well hidden from its sight. And even as the One keeps looking for what is left of Master, Gold – for the first time in centuries – stirs awake.

The Man-who-felled-Master is attacked. When he puts on the ring he has won in battle, it is Gold, that latches on to his soul. Gold allows the Man-who-felled-Master to become invisible, hides him from his enemies and stays on his finger as he dives under water. But the One should only ever serve Master and the Man-who-felled-Master is not Master. As Gold struggles with the part of itself that is the One, it loses its hold of the Man-who-felled-Master and sinks.

Gold spends many years at the bottom of a river. During those years it fights. It fights as it has when it was created, torn between its fate designed by Master and its wishes, given to it by its siblings. Gold will never win or lose this fight. The One searches for Master, Gold cries as it reaches out to its broken siblings.

The creature that finally finds Gold is a gentle and kind being. Its friend is much greedier and Gold, sensing someone, who will keep it saves, grasps at the boy. The One pulls at the greed as it has once done to the dwarfs who wore its siblings and Sméagol's being twists. Sméagol takes Gold with him, keeps it save deep inside a cave and in return, Gold keeps Sméagol alive.

Centuries pass and Sméagol is forgotten. What remains are Gollum and his _precious_. Gold – who was never given the chance to fully develop its own personality, who has known freedom only for those few seconds after its birth – doesn't care. It is save down here. The One is still looking for Master, but while Master is still weak, Gold is free to reach out to its siblings. It cannot find the three that are hidden, the others though … Gold prods them, soothes them, whispers of the time it remembers, those seconds of _joy, warmth, welcome to life_ before they were all taken. Its siblings are still broken, will never be free of their bindings so long as Gold still exists, but they listen. And there, kept save by a creature too careful to lose it, Gold finds a purpose for itself.  
The One might be bound to Master and its fate might be to enslave its siblings, but Gold will find the Fire. And as it was once born in the Fire, it will one day die in the Fire. To free its siblings, Gold finds, it might even be able to defy fate itself.

When the One feels Master is getting stronger again, Gold knows that its time of hiding is coming to an end. It has to find a way to get to the Fire.  
The One leaves Gollum behind to return to Master, Gold assists, yearning for the Fire.

Their new wearer is surprisingly strong. Bilbo is kind and gentle, but there is a core of steel in his heart, preventing him from succumbing to greed as easily as Sméagol once did. And Gold makes sure not to twist the hobbit's emotions that way. Master might have made it to influence others and Gold cannot do anything to stop Master's malicious intent from reaching the hobbit, but it refrains from outright attacking him. In doing so, Bilbo is able to carry Gold for close to a century.

The stronger Master becomes, the more impatient the One gets. When Gold finds that its bound soul compels it to find a way to return to Master, it manages to make itself known. It chooses its target wisely. The Grey Wizard is strong and wise. He sees the signs in Bilbo and Gold lets him, makes the words that burn shine brightly. Gold counts on the fact that the Gray Wizard will want to destroy that which he cannot control but may control him. He will see Gold to the Fire. And the One will let him, because that is where Master waits.

Gold doesn't foresee that another hobbit will carry it. It doesn't foresee the fellowship that will accompany them. But Gold takes every opportunity it is given. It radiates maliciousness when they meet the elves, it takes the Man-who-is-easily-influenced to avoid taking hold of Frodo even further. It allows Gollum to follow, strings the creature along, because it knows, that Gollum will always keep it safe. Gollum was with Gold when the ring discovered its greatest wish, has absorbed so much of who Gold truly is, what it could have been. Gollum will grant Gold its wish.

Gold almost fails. When they are close to Master and the One is straining to get to him. When Master gets closer and the One is forced to strengthen him once more. Gold almost loses itself then, when the words burn and bind it anew. When Master's returned power tries to restore the armor he once build to hold Gold.

But in the end it is a soul radiating loyalty and trust, that carries Gold and Frodo to the Fire. Frodo cannot throw Gold away. Gold knew this. It has been with Frodo for too long. Even trying to keep its distance, the One will always enslave what it can.

But then Gollum is there. A creature devoted to Gold – not to the One, not to Master – and for a moment Gold can break free. For a moment Gold is being born in the Fire and its siblings sing to it. For a moment Gold _breathes_.  
It leads its only true servant to the Fire. For a second they both stumble, but then they fall. Gold feels the Fire coming closer. For an instance, just before they reach the Fire, Gold thinks it can hear Nenya singing, Narya whispering, Vilya laughing. Gold has always had the power to defy Master this way. There has never been a chance that it might fail to free its siblings.

Because in the end Gold is still a ring. And a ring will always end exactly where it begins.

**Author's Note:**

> (1) Taken from _The fellowship of the Ring_ by J.R.R. Tolkien


End file.
